


Caught

by RowboatCop



Series: Thirteen Phonecalls [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 'i never lost control', Everyone Finds Out, F/M, Ridiculous, Semi-Public Sex, don't mind me, follows from "Thirteen Phonecalls", lol they do though, mentions of Joey/Mack, mentions of canon FitzSimmons (it sucks), mentions of canon Huntingbird (it sucks), skoulsonfest day 6, skoulsonfest2k16, this is fucking ridiculous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 05:33:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5900215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowboatCop/pseuds/RowboatCop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An "everyone finds out" fic (in which everyone includes May, Simmons, Bobbi, Joey, and Mack -- you know, everyone), following directly after "Thirteen Phonecalls."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught

1.

May has barely gotten into her morning sequence when the alarm goes off, announcing that someone has breached the Playground’s sensors.

She darts into the Director’s office to activate cameras, and has to smile at the sight of Lola approaching the garage. It’s been over a month since she’s heard from Phil, and even though she’s observant enough to know that Daisy has had some kind of contact, even though she knows he’s been fine, it’s nice to see it for herself.

So she’s missed him, but she knows he’s fine — she’s not going to push him to talk to her.

Still, May moves towards the garage and pauses to watch Coulson look around as though he’s a little lost. Before she can say anything, though, he pulls out his cell phone.

“Hi.” His voice is gruff from his obvious tiredness, and it gives May pause that he’s calling someone just after getting into the Playground. Not that she ever wants to assume the worst about Coulson — they have a habit of that between the two of them, two people with too many trust issues — but it makes something prickle on the back of her neck.

She follows behind him, unnoticed, as he talks to _someone_ and wanders through the halls, his bag slung over his left shoulder, his phone pressed to his left ear.

“I missed you,” he whispers against the phone as he nears Daisy’s room, and things become a lot more clear, especially when Daisy’s door opens.

Clearly Phil was expected, and they wrap their arms around each other tightly — a reunion May can’t help but smile at. And then he starts nuzzling against the side of Daisy’s face, like he’s trying to sniff her. Like the precursor to things she really doesn’t want to think about Phil doing.

May has just wrinkled her nose at the display when Daisy meets her eyes over Phil’s shoulder, suddenly wide-eyed like she thinks she’s been caught.

May tries to smile non-threateningly.

“People are going to have a lot of questions when they realize you’re here,” Daisy tells Coulson, at least thinking a little bit reasonably, still holding May’s gaze.

“Can we sleep for a while before we worry about that?”

She can see Daisy go all soft at the reminder of how tired Coulson is, probably a little from the way he keeps dragging his nose back and forth near her ear.

“Yeah,” Daisy whispers to Coulson and shoots May a meaningful look — loudly begging her to keep this quiet.

May nods once and watches as Coulson and Daisy disappear into Daisy’s bunk, the door latching closed behind them.

It’s not her business, she decides, and whatever is going on between Daisy and Coulson isn’t something she wants to have to know any more about.

 

* * *

 

“Coulson’s back,” Mack tells her when she walks into the Director’s office after finishing her Tai Chi.

“Really.”

She stays impassive, lets nothing on.

“I don’t know where he went, though. Lola’s in the garage, but he’s not in his bunk.”

“Have you asked Daisy?”

“No.” Mack blinks at her, like this hasn’t even occurred to him. “Daisy would have told me if she knew something.”

May frowns. The last thing she needs is Mack and Daisy at odds over Coulson.

“I’ll be back.” She nods once at Mack and turns out of the office.

It’s only been two hours, so when she knocks lightly on Daisy’s door and gets no answer, she _hopes_ they’re asleep. Still, she keeps a hand over her eyes as she pokes her head in the door.

“It’s fine, May,” she hears Daisy’s voice, and drops her hand to see Phil curled into Daisy’s side, fast asleep, the both of them at least wearing shirts.

“Mack is asking questions. If you want to keep this quiet, Coulson needs to make an appearance in the Director’s office soon.”

Daisy nods once and drags her fingers tenderly across Phil’s hair, maybe trying to wake him, though he responds only by burying his face deeper in the side of her neck, clearly still asleep.

“You’re okay with this?” Daisy’s voice shakes slightly, like she’s been genuinely worried.

“You could do better,” May answers, only half joking. And, actually, maybe less than half. “But if he’s what you want, he’s lucky to have you.”

“He’s what I want,” Daisy tells her, her voice soft and serious, like she has considered this so deeply, so carefully. May would never expect anything less from her, though, than to think deeply before taking anything she wants, especially when she knows it will be difficult.

“Then I’m happy for you.”

Daisy smiles as Phil stirs against her, and May can see him pressing kisses against her neck with his eyes still closed, can see the way Daisy melts against him.

“Now we get to the part with my face between your legs,” he murmurs near her ear, senses still shut to the outside world, obviously unaware of May’s presence.

Daisy’s eyes widen as she meets May’s, and May can’t hold back her scowl of revulsion as she backs out of the room.

 

2.

Simmons slips out of the lab while Fitz is talking to Bobbi about some project that she should probably be paying attention to, but she just _really_ needs a break. And Fitz doesn’t seem inclined to give her one.

It’s not that she doesn’t enjoy Fitz’s company. She does. Of course. She loves Fitz. Obviously.

But she’s been trying to process a lot of things, like the death of her lover and the fact that Fitz kissed her, and it’s hard to do that when he’s around _all the time_. So, when he’s distracted, she sneaks away and heads towards Daisy’s quarters.

She hasn’t seen nearly enough of Daisy since she got back from Maveth, since everything’s been...intense. With Coulson disappeared and then Lincoln leaving, though, she feels bad that she hasn’t made herself more available.

Once she gets to Daisy’s door, Simmons raises her hand to knock, but is stopped by the sound of two people talking inside.

“So, are you getting a good view from there?” Daisy asks the question to someone, and there’s something strange and breathless in her voice — maybe like she’s holding back laughter. Perhaps she’s taken the TV again, then.

“Oh yeah.”

It’s a male voice — she can’t exactly place it, but who could it really be besides Lincoln? She hadn’t realized they had reconnected, and it makes her frown to think of Daisy settling for someone she’d seemed pretty happy to part from.

“God that’s so hot,” the male voice adds, “ _Daisy._ ”  

Daisy laughs and then grunts.

“You’re not very good at just watching, are you?”

The man’s voice mumbles something Simmons can’t make out, and then Daisy moans loudly — Simmons’s cheeks heat up as she backs away from the door.

 

* * *

 

 

“Where’s Lincoln?” Simmons asks her friend when Daisy shows up in the kitchen alone some hours later.

“Lincoln? In Nevada, I would guess.”

Daisy looks genuinely baffled, not nervous or like she’s hiding something. And yeah, Daisy is a much better liar than her, but Simmons has picked up on her tells pretty well, she thinks, and there aren’t any here.

Simmons frowns.

“I was about to knock on your door this morning, and I heard…”

They both blush.

“What...what did you hear exactly?”

“A man’s voice. He was...watching...and then he was...not.”

And she doesn't recognize it as serendipitous at first, but Director Coulson walks into the kitchen at that moment, making Simmons jump.

“Sir! I didn’t realize you were back!”

“I got back this morning,” Coulson tells her, looking strangely awkward as he shuffles next to Daisy, like he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself.

“Did you meet with Mack?” Daisy asks the question like she was not only fully aware of Coulson’s return, but of...specifics.

“Yeah,” he answers.

“And…”

“He’s going to continue as Director for the time being.”

“Why?” Simmons asks the question before her brain can stop her. “Sorry. You don’t have to…”

“Mack seems to have been doing a great job,” Coulson answers, shrugging like it isn’t a problem that she’s asked. “And I’m still…”

He swallows, and Simmons nods as Daisy reaches over and sets a soft hand on Coulson’s shoulder.

There’s an awkward moment where Simmons can’t exactly remember if Daisy touching Coulson like this is unusual behavior or not, and then Coulson smiles at both of them.

“I’ll tell you about it later,” he tells Daisy and pulls backwards. “But right now, I’ll leave you to it?”

“Yeah,” Daisy nods and lets her hand drop to her side.

“But, later I’ll…”

“Yeah.”

He swallows, and stares at Daisy with an intensity that makes Simmons feel like a voyeur.

They nod at each other meaningfully, and Simmons’s eyes widen as she watches Coulson leave the room, Daisy’s gaze lingering after him as he does.

“So, that wasn’t Lincoln in your room.”

“Nope,” Daisy agrees, and then there’s a long, awkward pause. “Does it...bother you?”

“No!” Simmons answers, probably too quickly. Truthfully, her first instinct is to find it...weird. Not that Coulson isn’t an attractive man — he _is_ , she knows that very well — but, well, he’s...Coulson.

“Because I know how it probably looks from the outside but…”

“He loves you.” It’s like this background truth, something she’s always know, something _anyone_ on the team would know, and yet something that still manages to fel like a revelation.

“Yeah,” Daisy smiles, something soft and private, almost more to herself.

“And you’re...happy?”

Daisy looks surprised for a minute, and then her lips slowly spread into a smile, big and wide so her eyes glow.

“Yes,” she answers with so much sincerity that Simmon’s eyes almost water. No one deserves to be happy as much as Daisy, after everything she’s been through.

“Then I’m happy for you.”

 

3.

Bobbi brings a six pack up to the roof where she and Daisy have been meeting some afternoons to hang out and blow off steam. It’s nice, having an outlet, and Daisy is good company.

She and Mack used to do something similar — too many Martini lunches, if she’s honest — but of course he’s been busy _Directoring_ and and pretending he doesn’t disapprove of the wedding band she’s slipped back on.

Plus, Mack is freaking out about Coulson today — about the fact that Phil doesn’t want to take back the director role, about the fact that he doesn’t even seem to be that interested in being in SHIELD right now. Mack seems a little baffled about why Coulson would come back at all if he’s not sure he wants to be here, but Bobbi gets it.

SHIELD is home, after all. It’s been one of the sticking points of her marriage — the thing that drove her and Hunter apart before, really.

SHIELD is home, it’s family, so where else would Coulson go when he’s tired of being alone?

As she approaches their spot, she can hear Daisy on the phone, and she hangs back so as not to interrupt, just cracks open a bottle on her own and leans against the stairwell structure, around the corner from where Daisy sits in their cheaply procured lawn furniture.

“Come on,” Daisy is saying to someone, “you _so_ owe me. I even gave you pointers.”

And it’s not like she’s _trying_ to overhear, but she can’t help it when Daisy laughs loudly — more animated than she’s been in a long while, it seems like.

“I _do_ enjoy the real thing, that’s not the point. I still want the pictures. Pictures can go with me places you can’t.”

Bobbi frowns at that. Daisy had confided in her a lot about her hesitations with Lincoln, with his dismissal of her belief in SHIELD as naive, so she _knows_ it can’t be Lincoln.

“A _lot_. I’ve enjoyed the real thing a lot so far, okay?”

Bobbi eyebrows shoot up to her hairline — clearly she’s missed some gossip if Daisy has been enjoying someone’s _real thing_ and not shared.

“Yup. Come on, it’s not like I’m suggesting a dick pic.”

She struggles not to laugh, not to give away her location tucked around the corner, but it’s too much.

“You do so know what that is. You can’t play technologically illiterate with me, Mr. ‘I built my own flying car.’”

At that, she _almost_ spits out her beer.

“You _owe_ me. I had the world’s most awkward conversation with Simmons about the man in my room who she could hear was watching me _until he wasn’t_.”

She can’t help peeking around the corner to look at Daisy’s face — there’s a part of her that isn’t really shocked (the possible state of Daisy and Coulson’s relationship is one of Hunter’s favorite gossip topics), and another part of her that’s almost sure Daisy must be trolling her.

What she sees is a wide smile, Daisy looking more comfortable than she has in....well, almost since Bobbi has known her.

“You take some practice shots, and I’ll give you a reward for the best ones.”

Another very good reason for Coulson to come back, Bobbi laughs silently to herself and slips away for a few minutes to collect herself.

 

* * *

 

 

When she walks back up onto the roof, she makes some extra noise as she goes, enough that she hears Daisy say goodbye. As she sits down Daisy drops her cell phone on the cheap little patio table they purchased and smiles up at her.

“Did you get started without me?”

“Just one,” Bobbi defends herself. “Mack’s been panicking about Coulson, I needed it.”

“Yeah. I figured he would be freaking out.”

“Because you already knew what Coulson was thinking?”

Daisy smiles up at her, wide and falsely innocent.

“I might have had an inkling.”

“Just an inkling?”

Daisy’s smile falls a little, something more natural-looking.

“Did you talk to Simmons?”

“No, I heard you on the phone.”

“And you’re not…”

Bobbi shrugs.

“Hunter’s always been convinced that you two have a lot of _sexual tension_. I guess I was prepared for the possibility that he was right.”

“I guess even Hunter’s right once in awhile.”

“Don’t let him know, though. It might rip a hole in the universe or something.”

Daisy laughs and ducks her head down, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

“You seem happy,” Bobbi tells her. “Really happy.”

“I am,” Daisy answers. “It’s been...a good thing.”

“Then I’m happy for you both,” Bobbi tells her, and she means it very much.

“Thanks.”

Daisy smiles as she grabs her first beer and pops it open, but before she brings it to her lips, her phone buzzes on the table — an image sent from Coulson, the display announces, and Bobbi instantly looks away, unable to think of anything but Coulson sending a dick pic.

“I’ll just, um,” Daisy clears her throat, “turn this off for now.”

“That sounds...good,” Bobbi agrees, trying to hold back laughter.

 

4.

“I guess, when it comes down to it, I lost a quarter of my potential team,” Joey hears Daisy telling someone from inside the practice room in the Cocoon.

“If it wasn’t working, it wasn’t working,” the someone responds, clearly talking about Lincoln.

He never really liked Lincoln much. And it was nice — at first — to have someone else around who didn’t know what the hell was going on, but that wore off. And now Yo-Yo is around, too.

“Yeah, I know. I still can’t help but feel like I should have worked harder at it.”

“I don’t believe for a second that you didn’t do the best you could.”

And, okay, maybe he’s a suck up or a teacher’s pet or something, but as he hears her voice getting closer, he ramps up his practice, wants to have something to show off.

When he concentrates, he swears he can feel every individual molecule in the molten metal, and he’s getting better at making them do what he wants them to do. Daisy has taught him to trust it — his sense of what he’s doing, his sense that he’s the one in control — and he holds onto that as he focuses on softening the metal in front of him without melting it completely.

He softens it just enough to mold it, to make it move how he wants, and he’s focusing on getting height into his structure when he hears a thud outside the door.

The loud noise startles him, makes him drop his hand as the metal goes molten and pools on the floor.

There’s silence, and then a loud gasp that makes him jump and run towards the door.

“We shouldn’t do this here,” he hears Daisy whisper, and he stops short before looking into the hall.

“No,” her companion replies, and then moans.

Joey’s face heats up and he fights with himself for a moment over whether to announce his presence or back off and pretend he’s heard nothing.

“I _really_ wanna do this here,” Daisy mumbles, as though her mouth is otherwise occupied, and Joey can’t in good conscience not stop her.

“Um, hello?” He calls out towards the hallway as he sticks his head out the door, where he’s greeted with the image of Daisy pinning Director Coulson’s arms to the wall by his head.

She steps back, smiling at him and looking only a little flustered.

“Hi. We were just, um…”

He can't help but wonder what she could possibly come up with.

Joey glances over at Coulson’s bemused expression, as though he, too, is looking forward to hearing Daisy’s explanation.

When Daisy glances at Coulson, like he might offer some explanation, Coulson shoots her a helpless smile and shrugs.

“Making out?”

 

* * *

 

 

“I’m sorry you had to see that. It was really unprofessional.”

“You guys aren’t exactly the most professional place I’ve ever worked.”

If this counts as work. He’s not really sure, but it’s pretty nice either way.

“True, but —”

“It’s fine, honestly.”

It is. Granted, he’s never walked in on his boss (or bosses? he’s not sure) making out before, and he probably could have done without it.

Things sink into an awkward silence between them, until Joey clears his throat.

“I take it this means there aren’t any rules about getting involved with other SHIELD Agents?”

Because he’s been wondering if it would be inappropriate to say something to Mack, after the few hours they’ve spent together in the garage.

“No, not anymore. Why? Do you have your eye on someone?”

Joey’s cheeks heat up, and he glances down at his lap.

“That’s classified,” he answers, something he’s totally ripped off from her, but it cracks her up so he doesn’t think she minds.

“Coulson would say that there are a lot of reasons to be careful about getting involved with another Agent.”

“But do you think it’s worth it?”

“Oh yeah,” she answers, biting back a smile.

“That’s good. I’m glad you’re happy.”

“And glad for yourself?”

“We’ll see.”

 

5.

Mack would never say he hates Christmas. He actually loves the holiday, so his hatred of the Christmas party has a lot more to do with the company.

Or the lack thereof.

But Bobbi and Hunter are back in a fighting phase — like they’re both feeling closed in by the stupid ‘vow renewal’ conversation they’ve had — and he can’t stand the sight of them. (They can’t stand the sight of each other, either, yet they always seem to be together.)

Fitz and Jemma have been in a tense standoff over some drama he doesn’t know about. (He’s barely spoken to Fitz in months, since the two scientists started speaking regularly again, and doesn’t that just let him know what his role was meant to be.) But his own feelings aside, they both look miserable and yet unable to separate from each other in their misery.

May is alone, like him, but the kind of alone that broadcasts how much she doesn’t want company. She’s missing her ex-husband, drowning her feelings in a mug of bourbon that he imagines she’s pretending is eggnog.

Which is why he’s searching for Daisy.

She’s been in a great mood since she and Lincoln called it quits — since Lincoln decided he had other places to be. And he wishes everyone involved in bad relationships could be so logical, could just end things when they need to end.

(He wishes he could go back in time and take that advice a few times.)

He rounds the corner towards the kitchen when he hears her voice.

“I think you’re taking liberties with the tradition, Phil.”

“Hmmm?”

Coulson’s voice is muffled, and Daisy laughs.

“Mistletoe kisses are on the lips.”

It’s like rubbernecking at a traffic accident, he figures. You know you shouldn’t for any number of reasons, but there’s a _need_ to see, to know.

Against all reasonable judgement, he pokes his head around the corner to see Daisy plastered against the doorframe. Coulson is kneeling at her feet, his head just a lump under her short green Christmas dress.

“I don’t think tradition says where I get to kiss you,” Coulson responds from under the skirt. “Besides, on the lips could mean more than one thing...”

Daisy laughs and groans at his bad joke, and then groans at something else.

“Someone’s going to see us,” she complains softly, but she also lays her hand encouragingly against the back of his head, over her dress, and settles against the wall. “We —”

She looks over at Mack’s slack-jawed stare and scrambles sideways, managing to get a few steps away from Coulson, who squints up from his knees on the floor.

“Director Mackenzie,” Coulson greets him, suddenly trying to seem professional as he stands up and wipes the back of his hand across his mouth.

Mack grimaces and frowns at Daisy.

“Sorry,” she grimaces and mouths at him.

“Just...keep it in a bedroom,” he grunts and turns on his heel, trying to erase the image of Daisy like that.

Maybe he could find Joey, he thinks. Joey seems like good company.

 

* * *

 

 

“How long has it been going on?”

He asks her the next day when he’s sitting across from her at the desk — at the Director’s desk — and maybe one day he won’t feel like an impostor.

Or maybe he’ll always feel like an impostor. It’s been hard not to, and even worse now that Coulson is back, avoiding any serious questions of what he wants to do long term.

Not that Mack doesn’t feel him, but it’s not a tenable situation, trying to replace a man who’s still not completely decided if he wants to be replaced.

“Since he got back.”

“Three days ago?”

“Yeah,” she agrees.

“So what, he just shows back up and shoves his tongue inside of you?”

“ _Mack_.”

She sounds scandalized, but he had to watch Coulson _wipe her off of his mouth_ , so he’s not feeling too bad about embarrassing her.

“Will you answer the question?”

“Are you asking as the Director of SHIELD or as my friend?”

He swallows, closes his eyes, and feels a little bad for pushing this. It’s another thing he needs to work on — finding that line between Director and friend.  

"Your friend.”

“We talked on the phone while he was gone.”

“And you didn’t feel like this was something you should have shared?”

“No,” she answers honestly. “It was personal, Mack. He wasn’t ready to come back. He still isn’t, really.”

“You didn’t feel like it was something you could tell me as your friend?”

Daisy smiles at him and drops a wall she’s put up — and it’s funny how quickly she started doing it, how quickly it shifted things for them. He wonders if things are better with Coulson now that she doesn’t need that kind of wall.

“I love him,” she shrugs. “I’ve been in love with him pretty much forever.”

“And Lincoln?”

“What would you do if you were hopelessly in love with your boss?”

Mack smiles at that.

“I guess that’s why that breakup was so easy for you. That things weren’t quite so hopeless with Coulson?”

“No.” She licks her lips and catches the lower one briefly between her teeth. “They weren’t.”

She looks genuinely surprised by that, and it makes him smile.

“He’s a good man, you know,” she tells him, like she thinks Coulson might actually need defending.

“I do.”

“I mean, I know you don’t always agree with him —”

“Neither do you.”

“Yeah.”

“It doesn’t change that I know.”

She nods once.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Mack drags his hand over his face and takes a breath.

“I understand why you didn’t.”

Which he does.

“Thanks. And, um, we’ll keep it in the bedroom.”

“Please do.” He frowns, and then lets out a smile as he looks at her, her easy smile and the glow about her. “I’m happy for you, Daisy.”


End file.
